Much like PMs (or preventative maintenance) in clinical engineering, one of the more mundane topics in information technology are backups and archiving, yet similarly they can be of critical importance especially if not executed in a timely, consistent and appropriate manner. Unfortunately, because backups are not a sexy technology, they...

In the world of IT, the foundation technologies of networking and storage reign supreme. Data is growing larger at a seemingly geometric progression, and meanwhile, the need to aggregate, correlate, analyze, process and retrieve extremely large data sets is driving major advances in networking and storage technology. You may have...

Of all the it responsibilities i’ve had in my 16-year career, managing software licensing is the likely worst of them all. I’ll take a few brutal days of handling security outbreaks after it’s hit the fan any day of the week over the brain-numbing, dull, soul-crushing trudge of licensing contracts,...

Network worms are a class of malicious software (a.k.a. Malware) which self-replicate across a network among computer systems. In a theoretical sense I find them to be amazing and incredibly interesting, but in a practical sense they can be extremely difficult to deal with effectively. Typically IT/IS security teams have...

Clinical engineers are frequently called to work on time-sensitive and costly technology repair situations, many times which directly affect patient care workflows. CEs also have brothers-in-arms for those same circumstances in the IT staff that respond to incidents across technology platforms. Taking into account the previous topics I’ve written on...

As Americans discovered during the banking crisis and subsequent bailouts in 2008, fraud and abuse regulation and policy are only as good as the weakest investigation and enforcement activities. As you know, in health care there are numerous regulations, and in health care facilities there are numerous policies as well....

If there’s one thing IT marketing and publishing groups are great at it’s coining, reinforcing and misusing technology buzzwords. I don’t aim to be cynical, so I will make an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff on the topic of cloud computing. This buzzword has become mainstream and...

Last month’s IT Update addressed how a few key network infrastructure systems facilitate data communication between devices. Building on that, it’s good to be aware of what is being transmitted to and from medical equipment and how that may affect operations and/or patient care. I believe two key starting points...

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